Monday, March 28, 2011

The title says it all. With Fanfest happening in Reykjavik pretty much every serious EVE players' eyes were either glued to the live streams or reading about what was transpiring over there. And on my side, with Reakktor delivering my Black Prophecy beta key last Thursday, it meant that I had plenty of spaceship flying to do. So here are the things that I noticed the most coming out of Fanfest, followed by a quick review of Black Prophecy, and finishing with a quick Curse update.

Fanfest 2011:

- A lot of emphasis was given to Incarna and Carbon™ technology. By "a lot" I mean "pretty much 3 days". While I am one of the ones who doesn't care too much about the importance of walking around a station doing "shady deals" I'm happy to see that CCP is not trying to take bites that are too big. I just hope that the captain's quarters interface doesn't slow down the process of say switching from a Vaga to a Rapier on the fly. Technically when we switch ships we're still swimming in our pod's goo, right? But when Incarna has come of age and shops, bars, offices and whatnot have appeared it should be very interesting to take a break from flying around and have a Quafe while shooting the shit. Did anyone notice the priceless H.R. Giger chairs btw? :)

- Chessboxing should be made into a professionnal sport! That was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time, and I seriously hope that it becomes a Fanfest tradition, especially now that it's been proven that a chess player can also take some nasty punches XD

- The mining tournament should make a comeback because Rupturefest was quite boring. If this was an attempt to give Faction Warfare some exposure, I feel that it failed horribly. On the plus side, Verone looked absolutely dashing in his uniform and mohawk :))

- Did CCP Dr EyjoG really say something about removing mining in the not-so-near future or have I had too much beer?

- Super Sekrit Experimental IBM Tech. A computer geek's wet dream!

- The new turrets. I am of two minds on this. Most of the time when combat happens, especially in PvP, your ship is 10-50 pixels long, and maybe even a single pixel. You pay attention to which target you should be shooting at and where you are in space. However, when doing something safe or mind-numbingly boring (or both), that's when you take time to take in EVE's beauty. Like one of my buddies told me, if I get a Naglfar it will be awesome to watch the massive guns fire their trailer-sized bullets!

- CCP's vision of the future. Holy. Shit. While we will probably never see EVE and Dust be exactly true to this vision, I've never seen a trailer pack so much awesomeness in such a short time. Only two words apply: FUCK YEAH !!!

All in all it seems like it was a veru good Fanfest. There wasn't the mind-smashing reveal kind of like when Apocrypha was unveiled, but I think this is due to CCP new approach to expansions which is "little by little" instead "one big chunk". It may lead to less spectacular reveals, but in the long run it's better for the game. I also want to thank my buddy Cartboard Box for inviting me to his place so we could watch CCP Presents in all it's HD glory!

Black Prophecy:

Before I go any further let's get one thing straight: BP will never be like EVE. Where in EVE pretty much everything revolves around the economy and the need to make ISK in order to fly ships, BP has only one thing in mind: space combat. Running out of Corons, or KK$ as the game's money is called, is pretty much impossible. Upgrading a ship is more based around a player's level than it is about being able to afford the modules. Because yes, unlike EVE's skill training system, in BP you level up by killing stuff, fantasy MMO style. So yes it does imply some grinding, but at least that grinding is fun as the graphics are absolutely stunning and you get to see plenty of pretty 'splosions! So here's a short run-down of the good and the bad about Black Prophecy; bear in mind that I'm not quite through the prologue "tutorial" part of the game, but this tutorial is doing a good job at showing the game's control features.

The Good:

- The graphics engine. Just from the log-in screen it is just beautiful, and it's hard to believe that such graphics are available in a free-to-play MMO. The flying areas are vibrant with movement; when you're fighting in an asteroid environment, you have to dodge rocks and debris Han Solo style. To quote him: that wasn't a blast, something hit me! And when you fight around a station you can use the structures as cover. They should give style points for crazy stunts like in Crimson Skies! Yes it's that tight and it makes for some tricky flying. And this brings me to...

- Flight controls. Oh how I have missed a good Freelancer/Freespace style space sim! A flight control system is not absolutely necessary; some people even prefer the mouse/keyboard flight. But having a Saitek X52 it's nice to be able to put it to good use. I had to play with the control axes a bit but I was quickly able to find a setting I felt really comfortable with, and I have no trouble getting on a ship's Six.

- Missions in open areas. And it is here that I found something I didn't think I'd find in BP... TEARS! Cries of kill stealing abound on the BP forums from those not used to non-consensual PvP. It's not true PvP because in those early missions you just cannot damage friendlies, but in open areas when you get a mission of the "kill 10 bad guys" sort, you have to work for those kills. I'm one of the ones who finds it good because those mission would just be too easy. Oh, and ninja-looting is extremely easy to do, of course attracting more cries from carebear type players. I love it :)) Later on in the game there will be open areas where pilots of opposing factions collide and The PvP will happen, but I'm not there yet so I won't talk about something I don't know.

- Arena-style PvP: the pure EVE players will not like it but the Quaker in me loves it. Until you're able to join a clan it's possible to have 2v2 battles, but there will be clan battles. And I can bet my mom that with the Arena PvP will come a ladder system. It's pretty much inevitable.

The Not So Good:

- As soon as you encounter the first NPC's it becomes clear that someone at Reakktor is watching way too much Battlestar Galactica. In 2 hours of play time I think you hear the word "frak!" more often than in one entire season of BSG. I seriously hope they do something about this because it gets old really quick.

- The open areas can become laggy at times. This is especially annoying because as I mentioned above, you're trying your best to get kills before someone else. It happens sporadically and thankfully it's not the "denial of service" lag of 0.0 Sov fights in EVE, but lag is lag and it's always annoying.

- The game has beautiful cutscenes, but the problem is that there are too many of them. Is this a beta-only thing? Who knows. They are mostly used when travelling from the main station to a combat area and back. Some cutscenes are truly beautiful and really help getting into the storyline, but sometimes they get in the way and remove the player from immersion.

That's about all I can review for now as I have to skill up more and finish the prologue, choose my faction (Tyi or Genide... that is the question), get to know some other features, etc. I know there is a crafting system, but it's not even a thousandth of what is done in EVE. But I couldn't care less about crafting anyway so It doesn't touch me much. I'll do a bit of it for testing purposes but unless it's what turns my fighter into a death machine I won't be doing much of it. But all in all I think that it will be a game I'll be playing for a good while because it does some things that I would like to do in EVE, and vice versa. So yeah, thumbs up for me !!!

Curse update:

And in all this I did find some time dust off the Vaga and go hunting with my U'K mates. We got into a little fight right at our door step where we traded a Scimitar for a Rapier, Jaguar and Rifter. Above 50% efficency but just. We then formed up a fast-moving HAC/Logi gang and did a quick tour of Catch and a bit of Providence. Things were mostly quiet along the way but at some point our scout is able to nail an Apocalypse in a Sansha anomaly; we messed him up so bad that we had to hold fire to wait on some stragglers to get on the killmail. I almost popped him before they joined us, but my guns stopped just in time. As soon as he was popped a Zealot tried to "rescue" him but we melted him in no time. Things got quieter for a while but we knew a fleet was on our tail, and some point we lost a battlecruiser and a bomber. The BC was caught by our followers, and the bomber made the mistake of jumping into the hellhole called HED-GP. So all in all a 50-50 roam, but much fun was had.

And I also need to mention something: I know I may not log in very regularly but since I've joined Ushra'Khan my efficiency is locked at a very satisfying 100%. I know it will not last and I swear I don't fly safer just to keep it that way :))

Friday, March 25, 2011

It is only fitting that I post Icelandic band Mammut and what is known to us as the theme of the Podded Podcast. Enjoy this small taste of Iceland if, like me, you're stuck in your home town away from Fanfest.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

And here we are. After about a year and a half, Reykjavik is throwing its Valhalla-sized doors wide open to receive the world - OK, a small portion of it - to talk about the Serious Business of Internet Spaceships. There will be announcements, there will be discussions, there will be loud music and there will be immense quantities of Polar Beer ingurgitated. Unfortunately because of my dramatic financial events at the end of 2010 there was no way I could make it this year but I'm keeping my hopes up for 2012. But this doesn't mean I will pout in a corner and sulk; a few of the Montreal pilots will be getting together to follow the various EVE TV streams. Something tells me we will also repeat the Beer-Pizza thing we did after my move, but it will also be something of a pre-EVE Meet because yes, this is a Montreal Meet weekend.

As I have posted in the "Events and gatherings" threads on the EVE-O forums anyone who would want to get a small feel of the Fanfest can come and join us at Brutopia and get together with a bunch of internet-spaceship-loving guys/gals (yes, we've had an ex-BRUCE female pilot once!). We may not have Polar Beer in Montreal, but Brutopia's finest will do fine. We may not have StevieSG, but the Bruto-staff is even hotter... sorry Stevie !!! :))

BMTHOKK II !!!111ONESES

Kirith, I love you! Plz drive up the 417 so I can give you a big wet one :))

Seriously, blogger comrade Kirith Kodachi will be doing a reprise of the "Bring Me The Head Of Kirith Kodachi" event. If you don't know what this is here's the short version: Kirith will land a fully operational Chimera carrier at a planet in a Low-sec system and hand prizes to whoever will get the final blow, top damage, and finally Kirith's pod. There will be an attacker fleet but also a defender fleet. Having been part of the first event, I can tell you this is nothing but pure fun. Some people who are red to each other are fighting for the same side, some blues shoot at each other, Goons are Goons and shenanigans happen. All in all a great hour to spend and a great opportunity to get on a capital ship killmail. I don't know about you, but to me the only good cap ship is a dead cap ship !!! Follow the Ninveah blog and podcast for further developments.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Aight, now that my parental weekend is done and much Zzzz's have been recuperated, it's time to get back in the cockpit/pod/FPSguy and frag stuff and/or go obscenely fast. I must admit that being away from EVE for a bit gives me a much better appreciation of it when I come back, especially now that I'm in a region where I can just go out and kill stuff... and I ain't talking rats! But my two young tornadoes are also just enough video game aficionados (if their mom reads this I'm dead!) to ask me to play "this" or "that", and sometimes I find myself surprised at how much I've missed those games, or disappointed when something doesn't go according to plan. Let's take a closer look:

Quake Live: according to my player profile I hadn't logged into QL for 6 months... yikes! A quick update later, and a short warm-up in Q3 CPMA as I waited, I found a nicely populated free-for-all server and did my best to prove that you can't teach an old monkey to make faces. I didn't do too bad for being 6 months rusty, always placing in the higher half of the player list, even finishing 3rd on 12 on one occasion. Why I didn't place higher? I have an aggressive play style and often manage to blow myself up with point-blank rockets :)) It was great fun and I had missed Quake; it's like riding a bike... once you know how to do it you never forget!

World of Padman: I got this stand-alone Q3 mod to show my boys the fun of deathmatching without the blood, gore and satanic references found in Quake. Replace weapons with water guns, balloon launchers and paint guns, add cartoonish player models that get stars over their heads when they "die" and you get WoP. Quite funny :)

Flight Simulator 2004: when my youngest boy told me to "put on the planes" I was looking forward to it because I hadn't flown since before I packed the computer for my move. But I was disappointed that something is still funky with my USB connectors. I have a Saitek X52 which doesn't need any calibrating when installed, and now for some unknown reason the LCD screen on the throttle wouldn't light up (yet it was displaying information) and the controls were beyond all wrong. Something tells me my computer didn't like moving...

Mech4Mercs: it's pretty much inevitable that when my boys are with me one of 'em will ask me to "put on the robots!" and being a Battletech fan this is pretty much twisting my rubber arm. Because they want to see me pilot a huge range of 'mechs in a very short time I just go into Instant Action, turn off heat, ammo usage and damage, and just go nuts in 'mechs that would normally overheat in 2-3 shots! A few examples: a Supernova with 8x Large X-Pulse lasers, a Uziel with 2x assault lasers, 1 heavy rocket launcher and 2 heavy machine guns thrown in for good measure, and a Daishi with enough alpha-strike to insta-pwn some heavy 'mechs. Yep, munchkinism at its greatest!

EVE Online: yes, even though I tend to take a break from EVE when the boys are at my place, once in a while one of 'em wants to see the internet spaceships. The problem is that the feeling doesn't last long because to them, everything in EVE happens much too slow, and anything remotely interesting requires all my attention and when they decide they've had enough, I have to unplug "yesterday"; even mission running is hard because no one wants to leave a mission, or take a standings hit for quitting one, etc. I keep on saying it, EVE and kids just do not mix, even if the kids are big on science-fiction. Which is a shame I think.

So tonight I clone-jump back to the Crazy Place™ and will most likely find a gang to go find some trouble with. I have too many ships anyway, let's lose a few :))

Friday, March 18, 2011

Here's a little change of pace from my regular style. I was lucky enough to see Mr. Beck twice; once when he came to Montreal for the very first time at the Jazz Festival in 2009, and later in February 2010. Awesome shows both.

On the EVE front, I had a bit of fun early in the week but real life has been kicking my ass this week and I just didn't feel like playing. But it's not cuz it's not fun; the move to Curse was the right thing to do and the U'K guys have given me a nice place to call home.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Last Tuesday night I made official what a few of my corp-mates already knew and what I'm pretty sure some of my alliance-mates suspected. I announced to everyone that I would be leaving AMC and was actively looking for a new place I could call home. I had previously worked out my "looking for corp" advertisement and all I had left to do was to announce to all of New Eden that Cozmik R5 was ready to fight for a new cause. I was surprised at how fast attention was given to my post; remember, I come from a very quiet corp/alliance where chatter usually means business or trouble, and voice comms used only when necessary like fleet ops or board meetings. Within 5 minutes of posting on EVE-O Recruitment I had 2 convos going and 2 mails, and at the same time I was trying to skim through the various corp recruitment ads. This was faster than I expected because a lot of corps don't see EVE my way. Oh well! But one convo was catching more and more of my attention because the requirements I was asking for a new corp were being checked one after the other. It felt like I was talking to another "Me" who was understanding every single view I had of EVE. And in some weird way, it was almost predictable that I would be joining them. I still took a full day and a half to study the various options which presented themselves, but that first big convo turned out to be the good one.

And so just as the weekend was about to arrive I joined an alliance that though it has seen its share of trouble and drama, it is still alive and well. And I must admit, it sings a special song to Cozmik's racial heritage. The corp is called Trust Don't Rust; The alliance is called Ushra'Khan! When I started thinking that moving out of AMC just might improve the fun I have in EVE I had a short list of possible places where I could do what I like, some with people I knew, and some I had heard about. But even though I didn't know what had happened to U'K after they got disbanded from the inside, it was still in my list for a couple reasons: in my early days U'K was in Curse and one of BOZO's rare blues, at least when I joined 'em. We even had mixed fleets together and I know of at least one U'K pilot who later became a BOZO. And a bit later, I fought beside them in the Provi War. In fact, the first time I ever docked up in Providence was in a U'K held station. I then moved out of Providence, some guy disbanded them, and I sort of lost track of them for a while. Well, until the big convo that is.

So what's up with Ushra'Khan now? I could barely believe it when it was announced to me: back in that crazy place called Curse! As I've said before, this region's map is pretty much imprinted in my brain, and close to 50% of my collection of bookmarks is in that region alone. I still know some people who live there so I may get to score kills on 'em, or vice-versa. And this time around when I move there I will have the hability to jump back to Empire easily to resupply, and learn skills faster when I'll be a few days offline.

On Thursday evening the alliance switch happened and I was ready to haul part of my stuff to the Low-sec jump-off point. Kind of interesting as I had to do the trip in my Orca, but I took care to spend a lot of time not only scouting the way, but also monitoring the traffic I may encounter, and when I felt ready I went for it, without encountering any problems. Yes, this is dangerous flying people :) After this was done, I docked up the Orca in the last truck stop before Curse known as Berta, grabbed the trusty Taranis I had left there and proceeded to do what a lot of people fear to do and jumped straight into Doril. It helped that things were starting to quiet down but Curse is the last place in New Eden where you'd want to let your guard down. So with the help of my numerous tacticals and safespots I made it safely to U'K HQ. Cozmik has come home!

On Friday I didn't do much in EVE because 1- the only ship I had was my Taranis, and 2- I was dead tired from a crazy week at work. I did undock when there was a chance we could fight a few ships in our system, but a few ships became a lot and we had to get safe. A bomber gang and sleepiness followed so I logged. Saturday I was in full vegetative mode; this was the first weekend where I didn't have any moving-related activities so I took it very easy. There was the Montreal EVE Meet in the evening but it was one of the smallest ones with 3 pilots (me included) showing up; blame family suppers, gf birthdays, and NCDOT for this :) But on Sunday morning my stuff had been delivered and I decided to make good use of the 3-4 hours I had to kill before I had to go out. Not too long after I logged in a Scimitar was spotted flying unassisted (!) towards us so we set up a quick trap. I fumbled the first tackle and we came close to losing him because of my impatience, but we had him trapped on both sides of the gate so I took a deep breath and waited for the next opportunity. And I redeemed myself quite nicely: for my first U'K kill I got the final blow, top damage, and even scrammed the pod. Not a bad start!

I then got into a small 6-man fleet for a guy who wanted to practice his FC'ing, flying cheap to semi-cheap ships. It was cool to have a bubbler in gang again, something not possible in Hi-sec wardecs! So we charted a path through -A- territory in Catch, which would have us getting back into Curse from Jamunda. There was very little traffic on the way, with ships being very elusive or POS'ed up. But the action would happen at the Litom/Utopia gate where a Heretic and a Thorax were camping. I was then ordered to tackle the Heretic and proceeded to fuck him up. Once again final blow and top damage; the pod was very quick/lucky in escaping 2 bubbles. But the Heretic had put his fire on me and I came a bit too close to popping. We then got a good bead on the Thorax on the Utopia/Hemin gate, but Lo and Behold, about 15 reds jump in on us. Pancake gets called; a few ships like my oxygen-spewing 'Ranis get out, but some don't. Things started cooling down a bit and when the gang had moved off the gate we got into Hemin and docked up. Some waited out the heavy traffic, and some like me logged, but not before making repairs and finally planting my medical clone in Curse. God how I have missed this place !!!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Now that my real-life move is done, I have my internet connection back, and my parental weekend is over, it's time to deal with the serious business that is Internet Spaceships. And although my current corp/alliance has been good to me, lately things have been a lot too quiet in both corp and alliance. The time has come to move on and find a bunch of guys who are into what I'm into, which is small-gang skirmish PvP with zero pressure. I'm sure I will find a bunch of guys/gals that are also into that among the 45-50 thousand people who log in during my play time. I'm sure there are people who care more about having fun and can laugh off getting face-raped and don't necessarily dream of ousting Pandemic Legion out of the Alliance Tournament championship throne. I'm sure there are guys/gals who don't have to join 200+ blobs and not say a single word on comms for hours on end just so a megalomaniac FC can put a sov module into reinforced mode for the second time. I'm sure there are people to fly with out there who don't dissect every fight and every fit and find something to bitch about even after a victory. Well, starting tonight I'm out to find these people and hopefully join them so I can find fun in EVE again.

Before I do anything I have to physically play with my computer because for some reason my front-side USB inputs are refusing to work. This means no comms at the moment and this just does not fly; remind me to get an analog headset just in case. Add to that the fact that I can't plug in my FCS, my steering wheel, USB keys, my MP3 player and my soon-to-arrive smartphone... yeah, gotta fix this ASAP!

The first order of business will be to get my stuff centralized because I currently have no clue where I will end up. I will also need to get some replacement rigs because my Orca can only carry so many rigged ships. I admit I fit too many ships in advance for the flying I do. My current hangar(s) looks like this: 1 Tempest (got another one but it's so deep in W-space I'm writing it off), 1 Typhoon, 2x Vagabond, 2x Rapier, 3-4x Hurricane, 2x Sleipnir (one of 'em is not moving), 4-5 various interceptors, a few assault frigs, my Cheetah, a bunch of Stabbers, and too many Rifters to count. I may simply liquidate a lot of stuff in order to move lighter.

Second order of biz, start talking to people I already know to find out how's life in their respective corps these days, how's the traffic, etc. Having been around for a few years I got to know some people left and right in areas that may be interesting for me, but I have to make sure I get the right corp because after Celine Dion there's nothing I hate more than moving.

Third order, get active in the EVE forums' recruitment threads. Flying with people you know is fun, but meeting a new bunch of buddies is also fun, especially if they're into the same thing you are into.

Yep, this should be an interesting week, and it's a good thing because with the weather Montreal is having it's an awesome time for gaming. Here's to finding the right bunch of active crazies who like me crave only explosions and zero stress. Who knows, I may pop up in YOUR in-game channel :)

Friday, March 4, 2011

If Nine Inch Nails decided to drop into your living room for a private show, it would look a bit something like this. These people were beyond lucky to be there!

This is my first post from my new place; it's slowly starting to look habitable in here, made easier by the arrival of my internet and TV. It's good to disconnect once in a while but when I'm home I like to have my tech :)

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

It seems that one of the two games I had given up to have become vaporware has risen from what I thought were its ashes, and I guess I just wasn't one of the lucky ones to get in on the closed beta testing of this up-coming space shooter MMO. Now, I know it's still not in open beta here in North America, but Europe is a good start I think. For those who might not know what Black Prophecy is, it is to be a free-to-play MMO space-sim along the lines of Freespace and the X-wing series, with PvE, PvP, some economics and crafting, and... *drum roll please* ships flyable via Flight Control System !!! \o/

Now, I can hear what all of the Bitter Old EVE Vets are saying. "It'll never be as good as EVE!"... "It'll be multi-sharded!"... "arena PvP?!"... "no epic fleet warfare!"... "no carebear tears!"... "no sovereignty!".

In order: "I know", "yes", "yes", "OMGWTFBLOBLAGFEST!", "oh well", and "I don't give a flying fuck about sov bullshit!". If you're into the massive 0.0 blobs and love whining about lag (you know, the one that YOUR OWN BATTLE CREATES!), stick to EVE. If you're into the most complex industrial endeavours, from the gathering of ressources to building the final products, stick to EVE. If you're into the most convoluted of market schemes and all forms of meta-gaming, again, stick to EVE. But you see, I'm into exactly none of these things. I'm not saying that EVE is bad to me, I've been over that before. But having another space game on the side that does a few things that EVE doesn't do (direct piloting is good!) and that doesn't have the things that annoy me to no end is something I'm really looking forward to. Will I actually like it? Kinda hard to say without having had the chance to try it yet. Will I hate some aspects of it? Most assuredly because no game is perfect. But I do want to give it the shot that it deserves because I personnally think that having one company maintain a monopoly on MMO space games is bad. Very bad.

Here's to hoping North America gets to try BP soon... and let's leave the "soon™" to CCP !!!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Yes, the move is finally done, but no, I don't have my internet and TV connections yet. I get those on Thursday. And it'll be about time because I need to feed my cyber addiction :)) The move went without a single hitch; what made things a lot easier was not having a lot of big furniture to move. This meant that 1.5 hours before the U-Haul truck rental ran out we were already drinking beer and devouring pizza. I want to give a special shout-out to the following EVE pilots, without whom the move would not have been so easy: Letrange, Cartboard Box, Uozag, Unzer, Suletsap III and Si Gong. Whenever any of you guys have to move, you will have my arms!

So of course who says "no internet" also says "no MMO", and who says "moving" also says "unpacking". So take a wild guess what I've been doing. Slowly but surely my new place is starting to look livable, but I admit I took it easy over the weekend because I was way behind on much-needed Zzzz's, and yesterday I took the day off for my eldest son's 5th birthday. I did spend a little time at the computer; I played a bit of Diablo II, and when I got too tired even for that I watched a few movies. I also played with EFT a bit but this only emphasized the fact that I can't play EVE yet. Yep, it's hard to be a gamer without an internet connection these days!

Along with my internet and TV, I'm also waiting for another toy. I will be ditching my tiny and weak cell phone for one of those smartphones everyone is talking about. An HTC Nexus One if you want to know. One of my buddies has one so I got to see it in operation, but before I even get it I downloaded the *gulp* 340 page manual! Yes it will be nifty to have e-mail and web access wherever I go, with double the storage of my MP3 player, and maybe more cuz I intend to put in a roomier memory card, and also a pretty decent camera for pics and vids. But I think this phone took a page from CCP's book in terms of learning cliff. I should be used to it by summer :))

So there ya go, the quick "I'm almost back" update as I wait for my connections of various kind. Good thing I had a long skill to train up!